Photo provided Gov’t Mule will make its Brown County Music Center debut at 7:30 p.m. April 8.
BROWN COUNTY — Even if you’ve been to a Gov’t Mule concert before, you’ve never been to one like this.
That’s because no two concerts from this band, led by Grammy award-winning artist, songwriter, producer and guitar legend Warren Haynes, are the same. With the set list varying wildly from night to night, there’s no telling what this group will bring with them for its Brown County Music Center debut.
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. on April 8. Tickets can be purchased from browncountymusiccenter.com.
Haynes, who joined the Allman Brothers Band as their guitarist in 1989, founded Gov’t Mule initially as a side project to the Allman Brothers. What started out though as a side project has now gone on to release over 20 studio and live albums and host thousands of memorable performances, according to the band’s website.
“We were just going to make a low budget record and do one tour just as something fun to do during our downtime when we weren’t touring with the Allman Brothers,” Haynes said. “And it turned into more than that and here it is over 30 years later and we’re still doing it and the audience is growing and it’s amazing to look back at the way it’s all taken shape.”
Band members include Haynes on guitar and vocals, Danny Louis on keyboards, guitar and backing vocals, Kevin Scott on bass and Terence Higgins on drums. Higgins is filling in for their drummer Matt Abts for the time being.
Since their start in 1994, Gov’t Mule has gone on to attract quite a global fanbase, more so than Haynes said they expected. They recently celebrated their 30th anniversary, and Haynes said this upcoming tour is somewhat an extension of that celebration.
Haynes described Gov’t Mule’s approach to music as being based on the way its members grew up being influenced by many different types of music.
For example, he said he listened to soul music before he became a fan of rock n’ roll, but he has always enjoyed folk music and later became a big fan of jazz and blues. They try to choose influences that they consider to be timeless and aspire to make timeless music themselves by combining these influences together in hopefully a unique way, he said.
“It’s really just an extension of what we’ve all done our entire lives, basing music around improvisation, combining different genres of music but applying a jazz philosophy to the approach,” Haynes said. “And I guess the daring part of it is experimenting and improvising on stage in front of an audience, but it feels natural to us and it’s extremely gratifying for myself more so than not taking that approach.”
Gov’t Mule’s shows are long, Haynes said, typically lasting two and a half hours or a little over and usually featuring two sets with a 20 minute break in the middle. Their shows blend performing the songs as they’re written along with plenty of improvisation.
“We’re looking to strike a balance between songs that are crafted that are similarly performed night after night and songs that are drastically different on a nightly basis,” Haynes said. “The shows are kind of intended to strike a balance between song performance and improvisation.”
Never knowing what they’re going to get is what Haynes hopes inspires fans to come back for more time and time again. In fact, Haynes said they have had some fans who have been to more than 100 of their concerts.
“You know, it’s good to be back on the road and live performance is such a big part of what we do and on stage is where we thrive and we’re lucky to have a wonderful audience that encourages the improvisational journeys that we go on,” Haynes said.